Nokia

Now we know a few more details about Nokia’s new Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 phones. The big unveiling took place yesterday in New York City, and what we saw was pretty impressive.

The Lumia makes a big splash with its accessories. It seems that Nokia is determined to pioneer the cause of the wireless charging station.

The Lumia 920 and 820 both incorporate Qi (pronounced “chee”) tech for wireless charging (an option with the Lumia 820.) Rather than connecting to a dock, all that’s needed to charge one of the phones is to place it on top of a (plugged in) pad. We’d already heard rumor about the design of the wireless charging pad, and what Nokia unveiled was actually three different styles.

The basic dock that looks like the same type of design as the phone case. It’s streamlined and shiny, and comes in a few bright color choices – red, blue, white, black and yellow.

The Fatboy Recharge Pillow is a puffy base that looks like a pillow. Its length and width extend at least one inch beyond the edges of the phone when it’s centered on the Pillow. The color choices are the same bright hues as those for the basic dock.

The JBL PowerUp Charging Speaker is definitely the star of the group. The charging stand includes an NFC chip that will trigger an app launch when you place it in the dock. Just put the smartphone on the stand where it will charge and automatically open your music player or alarm clock. The stand is equipped with high-quality audio speakers and a retro style. Its color choices are black, gray and blue.

In addition, Nokia said it has made deals with Virgin Atlantic and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to have charging stations in various public locations. Eventually, Nokia wants to see charging stations in public places all over the world.

Nokia is part of the Wireless Power Consortium. One of the Consortium’s goals is to build a true wireless-charging network with open standards. Qi is part of that design ethic. If your device is equipped for Qi wireless, you'll be able to charge it on any charging base that uses the Qi wireless charging standard.

Finally some pictures have surfaced with close-ups of a device that might be the next generation of Nokia phones.Up till now, we’ve only had leaked pictures, component images and patent application drawings to fuel speculation about what Nokia’s very unique Windows Phone 8 might look like.

The phone in the pics has a boxy design, like the shape of a deck of cards. One of my first thoughts: if you aren't connected by Bluetooth or a headset, the edges might make it tiring to hold for a long period of time.

The views also show elongated speaker grilles down one whole side. The phone is supposed to feature DTS sound - multichannel audio technology that is known for surround sound formats. The poor quality of speaker sound in portable devices today is almost as big a deal as battery life. DTS could mean a big leap forward in the audio experience. From a design standpoint, we can't imagine speakers extended the whole length of the handset. Maybe it's just for effect.

There's a lot that pictures can't tell. So the rumors of specs like a quad-core SoC, 12-megapixel camera and 4.5-inch HD screen should be taken with a big grain of salt.

Of course, this is all just a guess at whether these models are sourced from Nokia or rendered from legitimate hardware images or specs, but they are interesting. Maybe, we'll hear more on September 5th when Nokia and Microsoft hold their press event.

No matter what, a boxy design like this would be a real departure from the Apple, HTC and Samsung smooth, rounder edged and stylized cases we love right now. Windows 8 or not, I'd feel like Nokia's new device is drawing attention to my hand the way my eyes can't help but notice to a Nissan Cube on the street.

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, men and technology go together hand and hand or perhaps like a hand in heel much like women and shopping go together. Men most commonly use their Smartphones or other technological devices for audio and video playback, as personal organization applications, Internet access, and global positioning systems also known by its more popular reference GPS. According to a recent Smartphone Survey, more than 50.9% of women have adopted smartphones, with just a slightly lower 50.1% of men who've adopted smartphones. Here's a list of some of the most popular Smartphones that every woman should consider purchasing that man in her life whether its a husband, boyfriend, fiancee, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, nephew or even just a friend:

1) For that tech savvy man in your life you should consider the HTC EVO 4G LTE Smartphone because of its immense popularity and it technologically advanced features such as an Android 4.0 Operating System, 4.7-inch HD display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and 4G LTE connectivity. The HTC EVO 4G LTE is a literal out of this world technological marvel that also features Beats Audio, a quality sound system that is a perfect combination of hardware and software to mix the perfect and finally at $199.99 it also has a technological marvelous price to match.

2) For that music loving man in your life you should consider the Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman Smartphone (yes that's the real name) is readily equipped with everything that music loving man of yours could want. Some of those intriguing musical features include the ability to run on the Gingerbread Android Operating System and 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion processor. It also features a a 3.2-inch TFT capacitive touch display, 480x320p screen resolution, 5MP rear camera, 0.3MP secondary camera, 512MB RAM, and a 2GB memory card. The battery life of this Sony Walkman inspired Smartphone is a capability of f 14 hours on 2G network and 6 hours on 3G and the Live Connection is supported on a 3G Network by a Wi-Fi with DLNA support, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity enabled.

3) For the Corporate/Businessman in your life the BlackBerry Torch 9810 is the perfect briefcase accessory that every man should have in hand or in his pocket. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 comes fully equipped with h the legendary BlackBerry Messenger, QWERTY keypad, multi touch input, optical trackpad, TFT capacitive screen, megapixel camera, 4 GB internal memory, WiFi and of course also includes its 3G capabilities. The BlackBerry Torch also features ample 8G that is example to 32GB of memory, the convenient connectivity capabilities allow you to connect with with HSPA+ high speeds and WI-Fi. The BlackBerry 7.0 Operating System is nothing short of amazing with its liquid animation graphics that include instant response times and stunning graphics, it also supports HTML5 video and a voice activated universal search engine.

4) For the man in your life who's “young at heart” the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S has the looks, the design and the raging trends in sync with your man's youthful zest for life. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S features a 4.2 inch capacitive touch screen with LED backlight along with a an 8 megapixel camera capable of recording and capturing every youthful moment of the day and even well into the night. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S also features 720p HD Videos, runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread Operating System, a turbo lightening fast turbo fast 1.4 GHz processor and more than 25,000 Google Play applications most of which are free to use and download. With this youthful Smartphone also comes a youthful price tag for roughly $350.00.

5) For the social man in your life who loves his friending everyone he meets on Facebook and tweeting on Twitter about the fun in his life the Chat 3G is the perfect Smartphone Companion for this man. The Inq Chat 3G is just as it a sounds a very unique and intersting Smartphone that features blazing 3G speeds and even syncs your iTunes and Windows Media music, video and photos straight from your computer. With the Inq Chat 3G Smartphone you'll be sure to never miss a text message, you'll be able to connect on the go and of course Facebook is at the touch of your fingertips.

6) For the video gamer in your life who loves the thrill of the motorcycle chase, the capture of the alien foe or simple just a quiet countryside drive the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is meant for that very gamer in your life. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play features 4-inch LED backlit screen, multi touch input, Wi-Fi, 3G, 5 megapixel camera capable of recording 720p videos, runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is also the first and only known PlayStation Certified Android Smartphone but the downside it does come with a $369.99 price tag.

7) For the versatile man in your life the iPhone 4S is the most versatile Smartphone for the your perfectly versatile man. The iPhone 4S features a 3.5 inches LED backlit capacitive touchscreen, IPS TFT , a 5 megapixel camera with an LED flash and a front camera for capturing versatile images. The iPhone 4S also includes a Siri, you can ask her to make calls, send text, get directions or even tell a joke. The iPhone 4S features the A5 one of the fastest dual core processors that any Smartphone currently in process, 8MP iSight camera and optics and a versatile price tag of $199.99.

8) For the multitasking man in your life the Nokia E7 is a Smartphone that stands alone that is perfect for work and play. The Nokia E7 features ts full SLIDER QWERTY keyboard perfect for sending a quick email, typing short papers, instant messaging, social networking browsing the internet, the high definition 8 megapixel camera is perfect for taking crisp, clean photos and videos with its 720p HD quality and the Nokia E7 boasts an impressive nine hours of battery life. The Nokia E7 also includes a a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, 256 MB of RAM, 16GB of personal storage space, an AMOLED touchscreen, and a 1200 mAh battery.

9) For the family man in your life the ZTE Fury is a perfect match for that endearing and enduring family man who loves your and your children. The ZTE Fury features a 3.5 inches capacitive touch screen with 480 x 320 pixels resolution that utilized SnapDragon Qualcomm MSM8865 single-core 1.5 GHz, operates with the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, and it also includes a 4 GB plus slot MicroSD internal memory that can be upgrade to 32 GBs with 512 MBs RAM. This Smartphone also enables you to subscribe to Sprint Mobile Control for USD 4.99/per channel/per month to to lock their children’ mobile phone or schedule and to monitor their children's downloaded applications.

10) Finally for the sports fanatic man in your life the Galaxy Nexus is the perfect Smartphones that enables your sports fan to view his football, baseball and even football on a high quality Android 4.1 Galaxy Nexus touchscreen. The Galaxy Nexus also features a 4.65-inch 720 Super AMOLED HD display, 16GB or 32GB of on-board storage, 1GB of RAM, and NFC technology. It's 3G Network is easily accessible from anywhere in the world whether your on the go or in the comfort of your own home. The Galaxy Nexus is the first device running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and is the first pentaband device that utilizes the HSPA+ GSM networks.

Battery life can make or break the popularity of a cell phone. Manufacturers make a lot of promises, but in real life testing their claims rarely hold true. CNET recently updated the results of their talk-time testing. Here are their results listed in talk-time hours.

It’s interesting that there's such a wide range of results on the talk-time for the 20 best batteries, and less than three hours difference from top to bottom of the 20 worst. Note that Verizon doesn’t appear on the best list but does have five placements on the worst. It looks like the equipment itself isn't the only determining factor for battery performance.

Nokia has partnered with Microsoft and plans to get back into the smartphone game with the launch of Windows 8-based devices. According to a source who prefers to remain anonymous, Nokia will be making their plans public at Nokia World next month.

Nokia officials aren’t commenting on the rumors, but Arnaud Bauduin, a Paris-based fund manager at Ofi Asset Management said on the matter, “To come back, they either need to surf on a Microsoft success in mobile or become cool again -- two complicated challenges.”

Nokia’s Lumia devices entered the market 9 months ago, but service providers like AT&T chose not to carry them. Since many customers didn't know about the existence of the Lumia devices, this had a huge negative impact on sales.

To improve the visibility of the phones, Nokia will be using volunteers from its U.S. staff called Nokia’s Army, to work with the salespeople at the major carriers. Nokia’s Army will focus on educating the sales staff and customers about the Lumia alternative.

Nokia believes that timing of the launch of their new Windows 8-based devices is key. They plan to have their smartphones on the store shelves ahead of Apple’s expected Sept. 12 unveiling of the new iPhone.

Nokia has a lot of ground to make up. Their U.S. market share is at approximately 2% as Q2 this year. In 2001, it peaked at 32 percent.

1) The World's Most Expensive Mobile Phone is a the iPhone 4S "Diamond Rose" edition boasts a price tag of £5 million, which currently translates to $8,184,968.42. The lucky purchaser or recipient of this astounding and very glittery cell phone will receive 00 individual flawless diamonds totaling over 100 carats, a rose gold Apple logo with 53 diamonds, and a single cut 7.4-carat pink diamond on the home button. Sigh.......I guess I'd better start saving my money now.

2) The first mobile phone call was in 1973 on a warm, sunny afternoon by Motorola General Manager Martin Cooper took to the streets of New York with a prototype mobile phone. The first phone call he made to was s Dr Joel S Engel of Bell Labs phone company. When Dr. Engel heard who was head of research at Bell Labs answered the phone call he was greeted by Martin Cooper's voice was delighted to be able to inform him that Motorola had officially created the first mobile phone. His exact words were, “Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cellphone, a real, hand-held, portable cellphone.”

3) The first cell phone launched in 1984 at a whooping cost of more than $3,995 -- which is about $9,000 today, accounting for inflation. However, a hand-held cell phone was a definite status symbol for all of those 1980s yuppie types because the DynaTAC appeared in Gordon Gekko's hands in Wall Street, and later, Patrick Bateman used one in American Psycho. It was also made famous by Zach Morris in the 1990s high school television series Saved by the Bell.

4) The first cell phone to be actually classified as a “Smartphone” debuted in 1993 at Florida's Wireless World Conference weighing a little more than a pound and featuring a PDA type look with an early LCD touchscreen display. The original press release stated, “Designed by IBM, Simon looks and acts like a cellular phone but offers much more than voice communications. In fact, users can employ Simon as a wireless machine, a pager, an electronic mail device, a calendar, an appointment scheduler, an address book, a calculator and a pen-based sketchpad all for the cool price of $899.” Oh and by the way only 2000 of these “Smartphones” were ever produced.

5) Germany's Friedhelm Hillebrand is credited with creating today's most popular Smartphone and cell phone feature i.e. the ability to text message or also known as the SMS texting system. Hillebrand created the concept of a 128-byte text message to be sent via the existing mobile phone network. In 1985 Hillebrand experimented with making notes on his typewriter to come up with the ideal message length: 160 characters.

6) With more than two-million mobile phone towers and antennas in the U.S, cell phone towers and antennas are often disguised as signs, clock faces, drainpipes, telephone poles, church and cathedral roofs and even weather vanes especially in our more urban areas. One of the most popular ways of disguising cell phone towers is in plastic trees. They're so popular websites like FraudFrond.com “pays homage to the fake trees that disguise our cell phone towers." World renowned photographer Robert Voit featured an entire exhibit dedicated to photographs of the fake cell phone tower phenomenon.

7) Experts has recently identified telephonophobia, nomophobia, frigensophobia and ringxiety as conditions that can affect the mobile phone users of our generation. Telephonobia is the fear of making or recieving phone calls, while nomophobia means no-mobile-phone phobia and is the is the fear of being out of contact either by your phone being lost by either dead battery or no cell phone service. Ringanxiety is when you hear (or feel) your mobile ringing when it's not (talk about cell phone obbession) and Frigensophobia is the fear that using your mobile is damaging your brain.

8) In 1986 Scott Jones an promising and upcoming a26-year-old research scientist at MIT, invented the modern cellular voicemail system over a pizza or at least while attempting to order a pizza. His business venture Boston Technology won bids to create the voicemail systems for the mobile industry's big names. Talk about getting a lucky break with such a useful idea.

9) The world's most popular phone is the Nokia 1100, a basic GSM candybar launched in 2003 and became the world's best selling mobile device ever with more than 250 million 1100s have been sold worldwide.

10) Mobile device users are seeing an increase in QWERTY keyboards that offer more intelligent software means that use textonym faux pas are now being replaced by auto-correct faux pas, but not before they made the crossover from mobile to real life.

If you want to catch a glimpse of an early build of Windows Phone 7.8 running on a Nokia Lumia 900, check out the YouTube video by a Microsoft senior manager at Microsoft’s Redmond campus.

The following video demonstrates live tile resizing in all three modes - small, medium and large – and how this affects the amount of information displayed on the tile. For example a small SMS live tile gives you the number of unread messages. A large tile provides the number of unread messages and a quick preview of them.

Microsoft has a page dedicated to announcements about upgrades in WP 7.8. If you have a Microsoft account you’ll be able to access the page here.

Among other WP 7.8 highlights are updates about a new Start screen, new ways to share contacts and track data usage, enhancements to the camera used in the NokiaLumia 900 and news about the current inventory of over 100K Windows Phone apps.

Microsoft’s new Window Phone 8 OS won’t get installed on any of the current Windows Phone devices because they are based on a different core- Windows CE (Windows Phone 7) versus Windows NT (Windows Phone 8). Windows Phone 8 will support significant improvements including multiple CPU cores and better graphics.

Microsoft’s senior marketing manager for Windows Phone Greg Sullivan stated that, while it can be done, porting WP8 on older devices would be very expensive. He also stated that the WP8 requires functions like multi-core support, higher resolution screens, NFC and microSD card support. The legacy device hardware can’t make use of Windows Phone 8 upgrades.

Microsoft is attempting to make it up to current Windows Phone users with a Windows Phone 7 update (WP 7.8). It’s most noticeable change is a more user-friendly Start screen.

Users who buy Windows Phone 8-compatible devices, will be able to migrate their Windows Phone 7 apps. There's no backwards compatibility for the newly developed WP8 apps though and there's nothing that can be done about it.

This could mean a big loss of momentum for Microsoft’s mobile OS. They’re still the new kid on the block trying to establish a reputation. This isn’t helping.

Nokia doesn’t need any more bad press, but now Reuters and BusinessWeek have been spreading the news from more than a few financial analysts and venture capitalists that Nokia’s troubles are far from over.

UBS stated that Nokia would have “to significantly discount its new Microsoft Lumia products, including the Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710 in order… to gain any traction with retailers, operators and consumers.”

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has stated for the record that the company plans to ramp up its efforts in the affordable phone market in a big way by expanding its line of low-price Windows Phones like the Nokia Lumia 900. With the help of Microsoft pricing, Nokia plans to focus its efforts on producing cheap handsets in its Lumia line with a wide range of price points and features. The exact words were that the company "needs to compete with Android aggressively".

Currently the only entry-level phone in the Windows 7 line is the Nokia Lumia 610. Elop noted that there will be more of these devices to come with even lower pricing. The company will be achieving that goal with the help of Microsoft’s "specific support" to get to lower prices than Nokia "had a sight to."

Nokia has to do everything it can to compete on cost in the very competitive low-end Android smartphone markets like China. The battle will be all about price. The company also plans to save costs by refocusing their launches with more ambitious plans in just a few key countries.

Nokia's entry level phones have been its bread and butter for a long time. No wonder it is trying to replicate the same strategy with the Windows Phone OS.

Elop wouldn’t say when we can expect the new line of low-end Lumia’s to hit the market.